DONALD TRUMP has been elected as the next President of the United States, and Carl Reader explains the affect this will have on small businesses.

The Trump Effect on Small Business

Britain woke up today to the shock news that Donald Trump had won the presidential election in the US. Whilst not a supporter of either side in the election, I was relatively confident that it would be “business as usual” for American politics and that the public would vote for the devil they know.

Putting social issues to one side, the business world has already had a knee jerk reaction to the result; however I believe that there may well be a brighter future for those in business.

The Big Picture

First things first, we need to look at what has happened to the economy as a whole. The FTSE 100 has dropped, as have most markets, as a result of the news. Whilst we can quote headlines of “£30 billion written off the economy”, the reality is that 99.9% of UK businesses are not FTSE 100 businesses.

The exchange rate for the pound has also improved. Great for holidaymakers, even better for importers - but not so great for exporters.

US Elections 2016 in pictures

The top photos following the campaign journey of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump in the US Elections 2016

Next up is the stance the Republicans tend to take in the US, when compared to the Democrats. We have heard much about the Uber case in the UK, which looked to categorise their self employed drivers as employees.

This could potentially jeopardise the livelihood of over 4m “one man band” Brits, who operate on their own with no employees, and often enjoy the freedom that self employment gives them.

In the US, it appeared that similar contentions were being made, and were supported by the Unions. Given the Republicans stance on business, the chances are that we won’t see a dramatic case that could impact our self employed workers, who make up one in seven of us. After all, there is a tendency for case law in the US to impact the UK.

Finally, we will likely see that interest rates will remain low, and that corporate taxes will be cut. Again, as the world tends to follow the lead of the US, it should open the doors to a more competitive economy.